Workplace Diversity
Physical Diversity: Matching Work Environments and People
By Rebecca R. Hastings
Because human bodies vary in size and shape, it is possible that certain adjustments to the physical work environment may be necessary to enable differently sized employees to work efficiently, comfortably and safely. Though employers may not be required by federal law to customize the work environment for each employee, ergonomics can help them improve the way they do business.
Ergonomics is the science of fitting the job to the person, says Donielle Harsh, a consultant with the Job Accommodation Network (JAN), a service of the Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP). “It focuses on the design of work areas to enhance performance,” said Harsh during a session she co-presented at the JAN Conference held in Boston in September.
The benefit of paying attention to ergonomic issues, according to Harsh, is that changes may help prevent injuries. This is significant because the general duty clause of OSHA requires employers to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards.
Other benefits resulting from ergonomics-related efforts include lower medical costs, better productivity and lower insurance premiums, particularly for disability insurance, Harsh added.
According to Harsh, the JAN ergonomics team receives requests regularly from employees and employers related to back and neck problems and cumulative traumas such as carpal tunnel syndrome. JAN staff members field questions about accommodating conditions such as lupus, multiple sclerosis, tremors, arthritis, amputations and cancer.
Harsh said that ergonomics fits within an overall disability management strategy in which employers adapt working conditions as a result of injuries sustained on and off the job, as well as for illnesses and pregnancies. The goal is to minimize lost work time. “The sooner someone returns to work the better,” she said, regardless of the reason for the absence.
Harsh said an ergonomics program involves the combined analysis of an employee’s condition and an employee’s job to determine what jobs can and cannot be performed following an injury, illness or period of leave. “You want to make sure you have an effective program that applies to everyone,” she said.
Ergonomics should be a priority for an organization’s leaders, supervisors and employees, Harsh said. This involves the establishment of an “ergonomics culture” in which employees are asked for input and suggestions and are in turn supported with appropriate equipment, accommodations and education.
But ergonomics is more than just minimizing risk. Instead, it’s a process that ensures safety and efficiency. “If an employee is not working to maximum efficiency, then the whole organization is not being efficient,” said John Greer, another JAN consultant, who co-facilitated the conference session.
Organizations typically seek guidance from ergonomics consultants when they feel that their workforce is not able to perform at its best, says Mike Wynn, vice president of Humantech Inc., a workplace ergonomics consulting firm based in Ann Arbor, Mich.
“Ergonomics is the secret sauce for how [organizations] get changes made on the shop floor,” Wynn says. “These changes evolve into efficiencies which are needed to make things better, cheaper and faster.”
According to Wynn, employers often seek guidance because injuries have occurred. In other cases they fear impending injuries, sometimes because of concerns about older workers.
“But the risk exposures that could hurt the workforce [in general] are the same ones that could hurt aging workers,” Wynn adds. “An aging workforce doesn’t create new issues; it just brings issues to the forefront.”
Identification of risk factors associated with performance of job tasks is an important first step, Greer said during the session. Some risk factors are posture, force, velocity, repetition, duration and vibration. “Hopefully you see risk factors before an injury happens rather than as a result of injury,” he said.
“If you’re proactive and try to modify the job now, it might be easier to correct [or minimize risk factors] before there’s an injury,” Harsh added.
When injuries have already occurred, however, the focus turns to the return-to-work process. In order to get injured employees back to work as quickly as possible, Wynn says, employers need a work environment that is as good as it can be. “It’s the same thing we need to do for a healthy workforce,” he adds.
Building ergonomics considerations into a design before a facility is built is the ideal, says Wynn: “It’s always cheaper to build in ergonomics rather than to try to bolt it on,” he says. “Some companies find that the process of trying to improve an existing workplace is really challenging.”
When organizations are able to plan ahead, workstations can be designed to allow for adjustments by height and to accommodate the need to sit or stand. “For example, when we design the workplace we try to design for people with short arms,” Wynn says.
But the human element can be as daunting as the structural element, Wynn says. “One of the challenges we have in ergonomics is getting employees to accept change,” he says. “They’ve been dong things the same way for a while; it’s hard to get them to accept that there’s a better way.”
To overcome employee resistance, Wynn recommends, adapt a continuous improvement philosophy that involves employees actively.
Using the analogy of a sports coach, Wynn says that players must have the skills to perform a sport but also need to be trained to spot their own deficiencies. The coach’s role is to observe the athlete and give feedback. So too must managers select qualified employees, train them how to work safely and efficiently, and then watch and correct risky employee behavior, he says.
Wynn says employers sometimes assume that ergonomics is primarily about employee comfort and that organizations must ask people what they want and give it to them. Others think it’s just about analyzing jobs rather than offering solutions.
Instead, Wynn says, ergonomics is about improving the workplace for the benefit of people and the benefit of performance: “We want to provide people with a work environment that doesn’t have barriers to comfort and barriers to productivity.”
Rebecca R. Hastings, SPHR, is online writer/editor for SHRM.
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